Vendor gateway technology

ABSTRACT

Apparatus and methods for communicating between a gateway server and a plurality of other servers. The apparatus and methods may involve receiving information requests from the plurality of other servers. Each of the plurality of other servers may provide a platform for a different development environment. The apparatus and methods may further involve using the gateway server to generate an identification tag for each information request received from each of the plurality of other servers. The approved methods may include receiving a response to such information requests. In addition, the apparatus and methods may include associating the response received to the information request to which the response is responsive.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

Aspects of the disclosure relate to business-to-business integration.

BACKGROUND

Business to Business (“B2B”) is a term used in electronic commerce todescribe the automated communications between trading partners as a partof the business process. In one exemplary exchange of informationbetween a vendor and a business entity, the vendor, who may be one of anumber of vendors associated with the business entity, will query one ofa number of environment servers—i.e., a server that provides a platformfor a particular development environment—for specialized or proprietaryinformation. The vendor may alter or update that information and thenreturn it to the environment servers for storage and later retrieval,retrieval by other vendors, or retrieval and manipulation by theentities controlling the environment servers and the specializedinformation. Alternately, the transaction may be initiated by one of theenvironment servers seeking information from the vendor systems.

For example, one of multiple departments within an entity may seek adocument or information available from one of various vendors with whichthe entity has ongoing relationships. To that end, the entity'sinformation systems will communicate with the vendor's informationsystems, querying for that document or information, and the vendor'sinformation systems will respond with that document or information. Theinformation systems of the various vendors will, however, almostcertainly be different. Consequently, the various information systemsmay require the queries in different formats or under differentprotocols, and the various information systems may provide theresponsive document or information in different formats or underdifferent protocols.

In another example, a vendor may seek to place an order for variousparts or supplies from a supplier. To that end, the vendor's informationsystems will communicate with the supplier's information systems,seeking price and availability information of those parts or supplies.The supplier's information systems will respond with that information.Assuming price and availability are acceptable, the vendor's systemswill then place the order, thus adding information to the supplier'ssystems. Another vendor may, either subsequently or contemporaneously,be engaged in the same set of transactions and communications with thesupplier systems. The information systems of each of these vendors willalmost certainly be different, providing information or requests indifferent formats and under different protocols.

The development process of B2B integrations, such as the exemplaryintegrations set forth above, is a complex process requiring multipleenvironments, including testing environments. The development process isdesigned to allow the eventual progress of the integration fromdevelopment level to production-level.

The development process typically requires either (a) exposure of theenvironment servers to the internet and opening them up to manydifferent connections and protocols or (b) the substitution of “canned,”or predetermined communications, with the vendor systems. The first ofthese alternatives involves setting up accounts and connections withmultiple third parties. This alternative incurs time and expense andcreates the risk of exposing those environments to the internet. Thesecond is ineffective because it does not adequately validate aproduction-level system integration in a realistic manner.

It is desirable, therefore, to provide a method or system for minimizingthe costs and exposure risk while adequately validating aproduction-level system integration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of this invention to provide a method or system forminimizing the costs and exposure risk while adequately validating aproduction-level system integration. A method and/or system forstandardizing B2B integrations and the development of those integrationsin a manner that minimizes the exposure risk and time and expense whilevalidating production-level systems integration is provided.

A method and/or system for inserting a Vendor Gateway Server (“VGS”)between environment servers and a vendor information system is provided.The environment server may be internal to the implementing system andthe vendor information system may be external to the implementingsystem. The VGS may intercept information and requests between theinternal environment and the external vendors. The VGS may store andlook up specific information necessary for the routing of thetransaction between the internal environment and the external vendors.The VGS may route the information and requests as appropriate in lightof the specific information stored and retrieved.

An embodiment of the invention that uses a somewhat different model thanthe model listed above may involve multiple mortgage environment users.One of the users may request a title document from an external vendorsystem. The request may go initially to the VGS which may storeinformation about the request. Such information may include theoriginating mortgage environment and a transaction identifier. Suchinformation may also include format information and protocol informationrelating to the transmission and/or relating to the external vendorsystem. The VGS may then forward the request to the external vendorsystem.

When the vendor system responds to the request, that title document maybe sent to the VGS. The VGS may then access the previously storedinformation including the originating mortgage environment. The VGS maythen forward the requested title document to the originating mortgageenvironment user.

Some embodiments may include a system having an environment server. Theenvironment server may be any server selected from the following list ofservers: an operating environment server, a testing environment server,a secondary environment server, a backup environment server, adevelopment environment server, a Q-and-A environment server and/or anyother suitable server. The environment server may initiate informationrequests directed to remote systems. The system according to theinvention may further include a gateway server. The gateway server maybe configured to: receive the information requests; generate anidentification tag to those requests; receive responses to theinformation requests; and associate the responses received to theinformation request using the identification tag.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent uponconsideration of the following detailed description, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional B2B integration;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a B2B integration in accordance withthe principles of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that shows a process that corresponds to aportion of the process shown in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a B2B integration in accordance withthe principles of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Methods and systems for improving B2B integration are provided. B2Bintegration typically involves a Business Partner entity (“BP”) and atleast one external vendor information system. Typically, the informationsystems of the BP entity include at least one environment server. Suchenvironment servers might include an operating environment server, atesting environment server, a secondary environment server, a backupenvironment server, a development environment server, a Q-and-Aenvironment server, or any other environment server.

It should be understood that the term “server,” for the purposes of thispatent application, does not mean only a server as that term istypically understood in the computer industry but means any computerdevice (or devices) capable of performing in a functionally similarmanner to a traditional server. In this respect “server” includes, forexample, an individual computer, a particular component of an individualcomputer, or a network or distributed system of computers.

In some embodiments, the VGS is interposed between one or more of the BPenvironment servers and one or more of the vendor information systems.The VGS may intercept communications or information or requests betweenthe BP environment servers and the vendor information systems, capturingcertain information about the communications and in some instancesrouting the communications appropriately.

In some embodiments, the VGS so interposed may intercept a request forinformation originating from the BP environment server. The VGS maycapture information including the originating environment server and therelevant data transfer protocol (e.g., HTTP, SOAP) used by theoriginating environment server.

In a system referred to herein as Key Vendor Field Names, differentvendors refer to the same fields of information by different names. TheVGS may be further pre-programmed with information relating to how aspecific vendor identifies the fields. In a system referred to herein asVendor Protocol Requirements, different vendors may require incomingcommunications subject to particular protocols or formats. The VGS mayalso be further pre-programmed with information relating to how aspecific vendor requires regarding the protocol of incoming messages.

The VGS may store the information relating to a particular communicationin association with a transaction identifier. The VGS may further modifythe request to conform to any particular requirement of the particularvendor, as determined by the pre-programmed information. The VGS maytransmit the modified request, together with the transaction identifier(referred to hereinafter as a, a “VG request packet”), to the targetvendor information system.

In some embodiments, a vendor information system receiving a VG requestpacket may then send a response to that request back to the BP. Althoughthe response may be ultimately directed to the originating environmentserver, the response may be received by the VGS. The VGS receiving sucha response may parse the response for the transaction identifier andlook up information about that response using its associated transactionidentifier, including information identifying the originatingenvironment server.

The VGS may be further pre-programmed with information about theenvironment server. Such pre-programmed information may include a tablecorrelating Key Vendor Field Names to field names required by theenvironment server and including information about formats and protocolsrequired by the originating environment server. The VGS may furthermodify the response to conform to any particular requirements of theoriginating environment server, as, for example, determined by thepre-programmed information. The VGS may transmit the modified responseto the originating environment server.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional system. FIGS. 2-4 show illustrativeembodiments and features of the invention.

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and inwhich is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which theinvention may be practiced. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modificationsmay be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the presentinvention.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading thefollowing disclosure, various aspects described herein may be embodiedas a method, a data processing system, or a computer program product.Accordingly, those aspects may take the form of an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combiningsoftware and hardware aspects.

Furthermore, such aspects may take the form of a computer programproduct stored by one or more computer-readable storage media havingcomputer-readable program code, or instructions, embodied in or on thestorage media. Any suitable computer readable storage media may beutilized, including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices,magnetic storage devices, and/or any combination thereof. In addition,various signals representing data or events as described herein may betransferred between a source and a destination in the form ofelectromagnetic waves traveling through signal-conducting media such asmetal wires, optical fibers, and/or wireless transmission media (e.g.,air and/or space).

FIG. 1 shows a conventional B2B integration model 100. Conventional B2Bintegration model 100 may be based on Internet 101 or any suitablecommunication network. Testing environment platform server (“EPS”) 102may receive information from first vendor information system (“VIS”) 105using first vendor protocol 108, second VIS 106 using second vendorprotocol 109, and third VIS 107 using third vendor protocol 110.Specialized EPS 103 may receive information, similarly, from first VIS105, second VIS 106, and third VIS 107, each with their respectivevendor protocols 108, 109, 110. Production EPS 104 may receiveinformation from the three VIS's 105, 106, 107 using the respectivevendor protocols 108, 109, 110. The three exemplary environment platformservers 102, 103, 104 may be exposed to Internet Data Security Threats111, as well as Viruses and Malware 112.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative B2B integration model 200 according to theprinciples of the invention. Illustrative B2B integration model 200 maybe based on Internet 201 or any suitable communication network. VendorGateway Server 213 may receive information from first VIS 205 usingfirst vendor protocol 208, second VIS 206 using second vendor protocol209, and third VIS 207 using third vendor protocol 210. VGS 213 mayparse the incoming information and look up necessary information, andthen may direct the incoming information to the Testing EPS 202,Specialized EPS 203, or Production EPS 204 as appropriate. VGS 213 maycommunicate with EPS's 202, 203, 204 using a customized VGS-EPS protocol214.

In system 200, only the VGS 213 is exposed to internet threats 211 andviruses and malware 212. The testing EPS, specialized EPS, andproduction EPS may not be directly exposed to the Internet 201.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative process 300 for receiving information from avendor information systems 301, 302, and/or 303. At steps 304 and 305, aVGS 313 may look up a Transaction Identifier established by the VGS whenan originating EPS made the initial communication requesting informationfrom the VIS in question. At step 307, the VGS 313 modifies the incominginformation in format and protocol to match the requirements of theoriginating EPS. The VGS 313 may do so by implementing pre-programmedconversions using Key Vendor Field Names, or specifics relating toVendor Protocol Requirements, or any other suitable approach.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative process 400 for requesting and receivinginformation from vendor information systems. Illustrative process 400may be based on Internet 401 or any suitable communication network. UserJohn 326 on testing EPS 302 may seek information available from firstVIS 305. Testing EPS 302 may originate a request by sending the requestto the VGS 313. VGS 313 may use the pre-programmed protocols and formatsrequired by the testing EPS 202. VGS 313 may assign transactionidentification to the request and store information 323 associated withthat request. VGS 313 may then forward the request to the first VIS 305using the appropriate vendor protocol 308. Such protocol 308 may includetransaction identification information 320.

The first VIS 305 may respond to the information request using theappropriate vendor protocol 308, including the transactionidentification information 320. The first VIS 305 may send the responseto the VGS 313. The VGS 313 may parse the response and determine thetransaction identification information 320. The VGS may look up thestored transaction information 323 associated with that request. The VGSmay then modify the response to conform to the testing EPS requiredprotocol and format and then send that response to the Testing EPS 302for access by end-user John 326.

Similarly, user Mary 327 on Specialized EPS 303 may seek informationavailable from Second VIS 306, which may go through the VGS 313. The VGS313 may store information 324 associated with the request and assigntransaction identification 321. User Bruce 328 on Production EPS 304 maysimilarly seek information available from third VIS 307, which maysimilarly be processed through VGS 313.

Aspects of the invention have been described in terms of illustrativeembodiments thereof. A person having ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that numerous additional embodiments, modifications, andvariations may exist that remain within the scope and spirit of theinvention.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the apparatusfeatures described herein and illustrated in the FIGS. may be arrangedin other than the recited configuration and that one or more of thefeatures may be optional. Also, the methods described herein andillustrated in the FIGS. may be performed in other than the recitedorder and that one or more steps illustrated may be optional. Theabove-referenced embodiments may involve the use of other additionalelements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readabledata structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed hereinas well that can be partially or wholly implemented on acomputer-readable medium, for example, by storing computer-executableinstructions or modules or by utilizing computer-readable datastructures.

Thus, methods and systems for improving B2B integration are provided.Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the present inventioncan be practiced by other than the described embodiments, which arepresented for purposes of illustration rather than of limitation, andthat the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A gateway server configured to: receiveinformation requests from a plurality of environment platform servers onan intranet and communicating with a plurality of vendor informationservers via the Internet, a first of the environment platform serversbeing an operating environment server utilizing a customized protocol,and a second of the environment platform servers being a testingenvironment server utilizing the customized protocol, wherein thetesting environment server is utilized for validation of a first singleprotocol conversion and a second single protocol conversion prior to theutilization by the operating environment server of the first singleprotocol conversion and the second single protocol conversion; generatean identification tag for each information request received from each ofa testing server that supports the testing environment and an operatingserver that supports the operating environment; receive a response toone or more of such information requests from at least one vendorinformation server, of the plurality of vendor information servers,conforming to at least one distinct vendor protocol, said vendorprotocol being different from a plurality of vendor protocols and thatis different from the customized protocol; using the identification tag,associate the response received to the information request to which theresponse is responsive; conform the response to the developmentenvironment associated with the server associated with theidentification tag; and transmit the conforming response to the serverwhich originated the information request associated with the responsereceived, wherein: the gateway server performs the first singleconversion from the distinct vendor protocol to the customized protocoland the second single conversion from the customized protocol to thedistinct vendor protocol wherein the servers of the intranet are notdirectly exposed to the servers of the Internet.
 2. The server of claim1 further configured to forward the information request received to anIP address identified in the information request.
 3. The server of claim1 further configured to modify the information request to conform toreceipt requirements and/or processing requirements of a systemassociated with an IP address identified in the information request. 4.The server of claim 1 further configured to modify the response receivedto conform to receipt requirements and/or processing requirements of theserver that originated the information request associated with theresponse received.
 5. A system comprising: an environment server whichinitiates information requests directed to remote systems, theenvironment server providing a platform for a testing developmentenvironment, wherein the testing development environment is utilized forvalidation of a first single protocol conversion and a second singleprotocol conversion prior to the utilization by a gateway server of thefirst single protocol conversion and the second single protocolconversion; and the gateway server being configured to: receive theinformation requests utilizing a customized protocol on an intranet;generate an identification tag to those requests; receive responses tothe information requests from a remote system using at least onedistinct vendor protocol, said vendor protocol being different from aplurality of vendor protocols and that is different from the customizedprotocol, via the Internet; associate the responses received to theinformation requests using the identification tag; conform the responsesto the testing development environment associated with the environmentserver; transmit the conforming responses to the environment server byperforming the first single conversion from the distinct vendor protocolto the customized protocol and the second single conversion from thecustomized protocol to the distinct vendor protocol wherein the serversof the intranet are not directly exposed to the servers of the Internet.6. The system of claim 5 wherein the gateway server is furtherconfigured to forward the information requests to an IP addressidentified in the information requests.
 7. The system of claim 5 whereinthe gateway server is further configured to modify the informationrequests to conform to a receipt requirement of the system at an IPaddress identified in the information requests.
 8. The system of claim 5wherein the gateway server is further configured to modify eachinformation request to conform to a receipt requirement at an IP addressidentified in the information request.
 9. The system of claim 5 whereinthe gateway server is further configured to modify the responsesreceived to conform to a receipt requirement of the server whichoriginated the information requests.
 10. A method for communicatingbetween a gateway server and a plurality of other servers, the methodcomprising: integrating a testing environment into abusiness-to-business communication system a includes an operatingenvironment by: receiving information requests via a customized protocolfrom an operating server and a testing server that are among theplurality of other servers on an intranet, the operating serversupporting the operating environment and the testing server supportingthe testing environment, wherein the testing environment server isutilized for validation of a first single protocol conversion and asecond single protocol conversion prior to the utilization by theoperating environment server of the first single protocol conversion andthe second single protocol conversion; using the gateway server togenerate an identification tag for each information request receivedfrom the operating server and the testing server; receiving a responseto each information request from a vendor information server via atleast one distinct vendor protocol, said vendor protocol being differentfrom a plurality of vendor protocols and that is different from thecustomized protocol, via the Internet; using the identification tag toassociate the response received to the information request to which theresponse is responsive; conforming the response to a developmentenvironment associated with the environment server associated with therequest; and transmitting the conforming response to the environmentserver associated with the request by performing the first singleconversion from the distinct vendor protocol to the customized protocoland the second single conversion from the customized protocol to thedistinct vendor protocol wherein the servers of the intranet are notdirectly exposed to the servers of the Internet.
 11. The method of claim10 further comprising forwarding the information request received to anIP address identified in the information request.
 12. The method ofclaim 11 wherein the forwarding of the information request occurs afterthe response received is associated with the information request. 13.The method of claim 10 wherein the transmitting occurs after theresponse received is associated with the information request to whichthe response is responsive.
 14. The method of claim 10 furthercomprising modifying the information request to conform to receiptrequirements at an IP address identified in the information request. 15.The method of claim 14 wherein the modifying occurs after theidentification tag is generated.
 16. The method of claim 10 furthercomprising modifying the response received to conform to receiptrequirements by the server that originated the information requestassociated with the response received.